Hassan Sardar, Samiullah term Pakistan players spending hours on road in Australia “shameful”

KARACHI, Feb 14: Hockey legends Hassan Sardar and Samiullah termed the incident of Pakistan team players spending several hours on the road in Australia after the national federation failed to pay the hotel bills as “shameful” and demanded an inquiry into the whole episode.
The players of the Pakistan team were forced to spend several hours on the road upon reaching Canberra for the FIH Pro League, as their hotel bookings in the Australian capital were cancelled after the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) failed to pay the bill due to a lack of funds.
Olympian and former captain Samiullah expressed his anger at the way the national team players were treated.
“The Prime Minister has a lot of time for cricket but he is also the patron-in-chief of the PHF and I would request him to also clean up hockey affairs. This is shameful,” he said.
Another Olympian and former captain Hasan Sardar wondered how the national would perform on the field when such things happened.
“Imagine how demoralised the players and support staff must be going into a tough tournament against top teams,” he said.
“The government must hold an inquiry into the whole episode and find out who is responsible for the humiliation faced by the team.” Meanwhile, more disturbing details have emerged about the ordeal the Pakistan players faced in Australia due to the apparent poor governance by the PHF and PSB.
A player said from the start the tour had been a nightmare even though they were promised the best facilities and travel arrangements.“First our visas were held up because someone in the PHF didn’t submit proper application forms and after all completion of documents and verification we finally flew on February 5 to Australia via Thai Airways.” Interestingly, a source in the PHF said the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) was supposed to make direct payments to the hotel and arrange the travel schedule and tickets for the team.
“We didn’t get funds for these things from the PSB and we didn’t have enough funds when head coach Tahir Zaman contacted us,” he said.
Last year, the Pakistan team was not confirmed as a participant in the Azlan Shah event in Malaysia until the PHF cleared an outstanding bill for hotel accommodation of around USD 10,000. (PTI)